A New Year

Happy New Year! We hope that all of you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. On that note, it is time for us to change the title of our blog to 2011. So let's begin where we left off.

Amazon.com is NOT for the weak or weary. The bottom line is.....we worked our arses off! Yes, that is just the simplest way to put it. 55 to 60 hours per week. Lots of mileage and exercise! But, in the end, we made it! We both agree that the pros at this job outweigh the cons. The cons were just the hours worked and the "colder than expected" weather that we had to deal with. The pros were....again the hours worked, the weather, the pay including bonus, the free site with full hook-ups, the free lunches, the wonderful people that we met, and the friendships that have been established. The hours worked actually helped us lose some weight and exercise some muscles. The bad weather taught us how to overcome some difficult situations when living in an RV amongst freezing temperatures. So anyone that may be thinking about working at Amazon.com seasonally, get yourself mentally and physically prepared. As for us, we do plan to return next year.

We finished up on the 23rd of December, saying goodbye to friends and exchanging email addresses. The RV was packed and ready to go. We pulled out the next morning. Our destination was Edenton, North Carolina to spend the holidays with family. We stayed in Asheville, NC on Christmas Eve. We awoke Christmas morning to a bit of ice on the road. Craig was a little nervous, but we found some trucks spreading salt on the highway and followed them. That afternoon, about two hours from Edenton.....BOOM.....a flat tire on the Durango. Have you ever heard of someone that's "not a happy camper"? That was Craig's profile at that very moment. He began singing a sarcastic "Jingle Bells" that would give Cartman from South Park a run for his money. As he unloaded the rear of the Durango to access the spare tire, Karin calmly dodged the items as they flew through the air. Evetually the tire got changed...but wait....the pressure in the spare is too low. And here's a bonus: no air compressor. Sigh.

Now here is where we throw a "plug" in for a service that we have. It is emergency travel insurance that we have to cover both the Durango and camper. It is called Coach-Net. Craig called them (remember, this is Christmas Day). They had someone there within 40 minutes to pump up our tire! Oh happy day!!

So we arrived at Craig's parents house. Christmas lights and decorations galore. After a long journey, Christmas turned out to be beautiful.

We were planning to run to Virginia to pick up Craig's son Josh and his brother DJ the next day. Well, it starting snowing, and it didn't stop until the day after. So with 10 inches of snow, which this area hasn't seen for 30 years, we had to wait a few days to go and get them.

Craig finally did pick them up and it was a wonderful gathering. It is rather rural here in Edenton, but it seems like both Josh and DJ enjoyed the rest and relaxation. It was rather short-lived, as they went back to Virginia. Josh was on the way back to Iraq, with only a few months left there. And DJ, with guitar in hand, promised Grandpa to stop into a recruiting station to talk to the Coast Guard.

So what now? Well, now we are just looking for work. We'd like to go South, if possible. We just prefer to have things lined up before hitting the road. So we may stay in NC for a bit and see what comes up. It's a little cold here now. But now that we're a little more "seasoned" on the cold weather, it actually feels pretty comfy.

Living in our RV: The 8th month

Karin and I would like to start out by thanking everyone for following along on our journey. If you are new to our blog, or have missed some blog entries along the way, then you can find all of our blogs at craignkarin.blogspot.com.

We are currently working in Campbellsville, Kentucky at Amazon.com. We are here to help as Amazon.com gets busy with the holiday season shopping. The job is actually easy, yet the hardest part of it is being on your feet for 10 to 11 hours a day. We have just finished our first 60 hour week. We decided that we are here to work, and only have about 3 weeks to go. So let's get all the hours that we can.

Out of the 8 months that we've been on the road, we have worked during 5 of those months. When we leave Amazon.com around Christmas eve, we plan to head back to North Carolina to visit Craig's parents. After this, we are going to head south to warmer weather. There will be no hurry to find more work, hence the reason that we're putting in the maximum overtime here that Amazon.com allows.

It is a bit chilly here, which has taught us a few lessons about living in the RV during cold weather. On the first night that the temperature dropped below freezing, our water filter that is attached to the hose busted. We have since learned to leave the water dripping in a sink to prevent this from happening again. Craig filled one tank of propane, but forgot to fill the other one. Each tank lasts about a month in colder weather and only costs about $12.00 to fill. We woke up one morning to the cold reality that we had run out of propane. How would we get it filled while working? That's the great thing about our fellow Workampers. We take care of each other. Our neighbors, whom had the day off because they work the night shift, volunteered to run and fill our tanks. They also let us borrow an electric heater. Thank you again, Ken and Debbie!

The Workamping force that has invaded this small town of Campbellsville has had some interesting media written about them. Labeled as "migrant workers", "gypsies" and "nomads", newspapers in Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky have written some interesting articles. There was even a small story that had our neighbors, Jimmy and Sheila, on the ABC evening news with Diane Sawyer. If you look at this video, you can even see a quick glimpse of our travel trailer, the smaller RV compared to some of the larger ones around us. I personally think that our RV is big. Karin has reminded me that most males truly believe that things are much bigger.....than they really are.

Here are the links that will take you to the articles that are mentioned above.

The Louisville Courier-Journal article is here:
Courier-Journal

The Lexington Herald-Leader article is here:
Herald-Leader

The ABC World News with Diane Sawyer article/video is here:
ABC News

AND... Karin sent a Letter to the Editor concerning the Louisviller Courier-Journal article. See this here:
Letter to the Editor

Our Fellow Workampers

(Craig/Karin) Fortunately, we are not the only ones working at Mountain Lake Campground. There are several others workampers working along side of us. Some are retired, some are veterans, some are single. Some are very seasoned while others are new to workamping just like us. We would like for you to meet some of our fellow workampers. We will only use there first names, to protect a few who may be in the witness protection program or “on the lam“.

First let us introduce you to Virgil and Charlene. They have been riding motorcycles across the country for many years now. They are from West Virginia and about twenty-five miles from Charlene’s hometown. Virgil, a witty fellow, wears his beard to his waist and hair braided down his back. ZZ Top has nothing on this guy. He confessed that he has not cut his hair since 1977. When asked why so long, he responded that if he got tired of this life, then he could cut his hair and shave his beard and go off into the world and no one would recognize him. So far, it hasn’t been necessary to do so….yet.

Charlene is caretaker of the Russian sage, marigolds and assorted bright colored lilies in the campground gardens. She also has tomatoes and cucumbers growing in pots surrounding their RV. Virgil is the campground hero. He magically changed the campground showers from icy, hypothermia inducing nightmares, complete with screams and AGHHH from unsuspecting victims, into soothing, spa-quality, steam rooms. Everybody loves Virgil. We look forward to his stories around the evening picnic table while drinking his favorite beer, Milwaukee’s Best.

Next are Darryl and Teresa, also from West Virginia. They have been workamping for two years, since Darryl retired from law enforcement. When we asked about their plans, Darryl said he wants to travel to the sunrise in the east, the sunset in the west and see everything in between. They are responsible for disinfecting the campground shower houses and public places. And we thank God for them. Teresa also makes the second best peanut butter fudge. Craig’s mother will always hold first place for best fudge. Craig woofed up six pieces of fudge and would have continued if she had given him more. We look forward to them sharing family history around the campfires. We have learned a great deal about coal mining. We have developed a empathy and respect for coal miners who risk it all so that we may consume electricity anytime we desire.

Mr. and Ms. Moose are the next couple. Actually, the name is Caren and Moose. They are well-traveled motorcycle veterans from Omaha. This is their first workamping position. They fell in love with the area the year before while on tour and came to work this year. Caren is surviving cancer, and works part-time in the general store taking reservations. Moose is second in command to the owner, Shawn. One morning, Moose appeared zooming on his Harley-Davidson golf cart, growling and snarling as he chased a bear! He is known as “The Protector“. He is our gentle giant, reminding children to not run in the pool or zip across the road without looking. Towering over them at six feet plus with shaven head, they heed his warning. Children also adore his colorful parrot that rides on his shoulder. Craig and Moose communicate during working hours with grunts and groans….. like the old Looney Tunes cartoon that showcased wiley coyote and the sheepdog. After they clock out, they are the best of friends.

Our activity directors are Dick and Evelyn, both surviving World War II veterans! They are in their eighties, and have been traveling for years. They are members of the junior ranger program. They teach kids how to identify animal tracks, poison ivy, poison oak and fossils. Dick animates ghost stories at night, with oohs and ahs just like at boy scout camp.
Beverly and Ray just joined the group right after Memorial Day weekend. This is their first workamping experience also. They come from the Cincinnati area, and previously owned and operated a campground. Beverly helps out at the store, while Ray helps out on the grounds. Kenny and Becky are also new. Kenny works security. We also have Pat, a single workamper that helps wherever help is needed. Cleaning, security and helping in the store is where you’ll find her.

There are also some great employees here. They are local and some have worked here for a couple of seasons or more. Brenda and Kim make up the accounting, management, human resources and anything else that can be thrown their way. Steph, Megan, Tania and Shannon also work in the store. They are all a lot of fun. It can get “crazy” busy in the store at times. But when it slows down, watch out! The other day, Craig called Steph from the back room on his cell phone. He asked her if she had any “duck ways” in the store. After having Craig repeat the question a couple of times, Steph finally asked the magic question……”Sir, what’s a duck way”? And Craig responded “about five pounds with feathers…..quack quack”! Steph took it well, but we’ll see what the revenge turns out to be.

There’s Matt, Derek, Max and a couple of other guys that do a lot of the grunt work. The campground does not have sewer hook ups, so if you’re parked and camping for awhile, you only have two options to empty your “sanitary” tanks. Either pull your camper up to a dump station and do it yourself, or call for the “honey wagon”. Why they came up with the name “honey wagon”….we just don’t know. The honey wagon is a tank on wheels, with a pump attached that sucks your sanitary tanks dry. These guys take care of that, garbage removal, mowing, weed eating, road improvements and many other jobs. They are the manual backbone of the campground.

Susan and Shawn are the owners. They sit poolside daily, drinking their drinks that have the mini umbrellas stuck in them, soaking up the sunrays. They have cabana boys waiting on them hand and foot…..Susan gets at least two massages a day, while Shawn enjoys his pedicures. Ok, ok……we gotta stop because Karin and I are laughing so hard. Susan and Shawn work very hard! They are great owners, wonderful employers and have a general business sense that mixes well with their love for the land that they have and the people that come to use it. They have two great kids, Abbey and Lane. These two are very knowledgeable and help out when it is needed.

So there you go. Things are going well and we all work well as a team. So far, so good.
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

Copperhead !!

(Craig/Karin) Memorial day weekend has come and gone with little to no problems. We worked in the store on Saturday and had Sunday off. Craig handled reservations and Karin was the sample girl. She was dipping animal crackers into homemade cinnamon honey butter and passing them out. The funny thing was that she had the last jar of that specific honey butter! So many people wanted it, but couldn’t have it. What a tease! Some people griped a little that the store didn’t have animal crackers to sell. Oh well, you just cannot please everyone.

On Sunday, we decided to head out on a road trip. Not too far…..we just wanted to go the opposite way of all the weekenders and do a little hiking. We ended up in a small town called Fenwick. The Cherry River ran through it and looked inviting. So we pulled over and jumped in. Typical cold water coming down the mountains. It was a hot day, so it was very refreshing.

Mondays and Tuesdays are now Craig’s days to be the fill-in as the pool guy. Clean it up, sweep it, check and add chemicals if necessary. It’s a pretty easy job. On Tuesday, there was a group of high school students there for a private party. They sat in the pavilion that is right next to the pool as Craig was cleaning it. Some of the kids were calling out to Craig, saying “Hi Mr. Pumpkin”, referring to the bright orange polo shirt that he had to wear for work. Craig thought about responding with a single finger salute…..but then remembered that he was a ambassador for his employer. So he just did the old “grin and bear it” stance. A couple of teachers approached Craig and asked him where there was a water spigot at to fill up water balloons for a fight with the students later. Craig showed them the spigot and asked the teachers to forewarn him before the water balloon fight started, so that he wouldn’t get wet. The teachers said that they would do so, and turned on the spigot. Well, they had forgotten to attach a balloon to the hose, so water shot out and sprayed Craig. How funny was that! After they all stopped laughing, Craig smiled and responded that now he knew for future reference to watch out for the teachers as well as the students.

Karin has gotten into the swing of things in the store. She loves to converse with people as she rings them up at the register. The guys just love her! Craig was at the next register and asked the next person in line if he could help him. The gentleman responded “no, I’ll wait for Karin”. Craig can understand that…..her warm smile, blue eyes and bubbly personality are very appealing! Craig just smiles and thinks to himself “ enjoy it now guys, ’cause later on she’s heading home with me”. :)

Wednesdays and Thursdays are looking like they are going to be our regular days off. This past Wednesday, we just relaxed and visited the library. On Thursday, we decided to explore Hawks Nest, overlooking part of the New River Gorge. You drive through the small town of Anstead to get there. After checking out Lover’s Leap overlook, we wanted to get down to the bottom of the gorge. So we drove back through Anstead and found a dirt road that went along Mill Creek. Good thing we have a four wheel drive vehicle. We passed by and took some pictures of the creek, which had several waterfalls along the way. At the bottom, we found a rail trail that went back along the creek, so we began our hike.

Craig usually leads the way, using a hiking stick just to watch out for any pesky critters. The trail was about four feet wide, so Karin felt safe and passed up Craig to lead the way. About a half mile into the hike, as Craig followed Karin, Craig noticed a brown coil off to the right side of the trail. It was on top of a rocky area, maybe a foot from the trail. Karin was about to walk right by it. She didn’t see it at all. But Craig did…and he realized that is was a coiled up snake. Copperhead! Craig had never seen one, but it was very obvious now as to why they are named copperheads. Should he yell out to Karin, startling her and possibly frightening this venomous snake? He decided not to say anything until after Karin was well past it. Craig walked past it also, acting as if he had not noticed it. About ten feet past the snake, Craig stopped Karin. “Honey, now don’t be alarmed” is what Craig said. Before he continued, Karin knew instantly what he was about to say. But she didn’t realize that they had already past it. He explained why he didn’t alert her, and she fully understood. We walked back to take a look at it from a safe distance. Craig took pictures and then we moved along.

For some reason, Karin decided to follow behind Craig for the rest of the journey. We stumbled upon an old coal mine entrance barred by a steel grate. The date carved into the stone arch was 1921. It was rather eerie. As we stood there, we could see the miners going into and out of the entrance. Ok, it’s been closed for some time, but the mental image was there. Not a job that either one of us would be enthused about. There are many coal miners in this state. It is a very dangerous job, hence the mining accident that just took many lives in this state several weeks ago.

We returned to the trail and headed back down. When we reached the area of the copperhead, we stayed on the right side of the trail to give us a lot of space as we passed back by. The snake was still there, just enjoying a little sun. We went passed it and stopped again to observe it. We were about twelve feet away when the snake seemed to sense our presence. It moved slightly and tighten it’s coil up, raising it’s head as if to warn us that we were close enough. We understood it’s message, and continued down the trail. Another day in West Virginia was gone. Karin has a list of places for us to hike and see. Like sands in the hourglass, these are the days of our lives. :)
　

The Dumbing Down Transition

(Craig/Karin) We began our workamping job nearly three weeks ago. We are working together in the general store, learning how to make reservations and conduct other functions throughout the store. It’s a nice store filled with all kinds of neat stuff: T-shirts, shorts, candles, lawn ornaments, kites, toys, camping essentials, and an assortment of food. Hot pretzels, popcorn, nachos, cappuccino, soft serve and hand scooped ice cream, hot fudge, home made fudge and much more. It is a parent’s nightmare! Kids could walk in and then exit without buying a thing….and still leave with a visual sugar high! Three bucks can buy you a jawbreaker the size of a baseball. If you look at the fine print on the wrapper of that jawbreaker, it probably says that it’s produced and distributed by the American Dental Association. Hey, when times are bad you have to drum up business somehow. :)

Karin and I believe that if we are going to share our experiences, then we must share ALL of our experiences….no matter if they are good or if they are bad. Well, our ship has had smooth sailing up to this point, but we’ve hit some rough seas with this job. After two weeks of work, we found ourselves becoming a bit moody. We became easily irritated with each other and our surroundings. This was very unusual for us. We’ve been the best of friends from the start, never having a harsh word for one another. Disagreements between us were non-existent until now. What was happening here?? We didn’t know. We had to figure it out. We finally sat down and had a “heart to heart” discussion about our feelings and emotional distress. We put it all on the table……laid it all on the line. Communication was the key. We believe that we have figured it out. We came to a conclusion and we termed it “The Dumbing Down Transition”.

Now the last thing that we want to do is offend anyone. This has nothing to do with your line of work. It doesn’t matter if you’re a food preparer at McDonalds, or the chief executive officer at Microsoft. If or when you decide to make a drastic change to your lifestyle, as we have done, then you will go through a transition. Is everyone affected the same way? Nah. We are all different. Some will be affected more than others. But there will be a transition. We hadn’t really talked about it, let alone planned for it. We just ran into it. Karin was a stockbroker. Craig a manager and business owner. And now we find ourselves standing behind a counter…..in bright orange work shirts that should have “County Jail” painted on the back of them…..asking a kid if he wants his superman ice cream scoop to be placed upon a regular or sugar cone. Or making a stuff-a-buddy teddy bear by shoving a pipe into the rear end of an empty teddy bear skin and pumping it full of stuffing. What have we done to our life? The one million dollar stock trades are gone. No more business ownership. All things that were familiar to us were left behind. It’s kinda like doing a belly-flop onto a parking lot from a twenty story building. Pretty unfamiliar, if you can get our drift. So that’s where the dumbing down transition comes from. It has nothing to do with ignorance. It’s just a huge change in our lifestyle. Ok, so now that we see what the problem is…..how do we fix it?

Once we had figured out why things had soured over the last couple of weeks, we were able to smile. We actually laughed and cried a bit, both at the same time. When it came to this job, or really any job in the future, we will need to dumb it down. And guess what? There’s nothing wrong with that. The whole purpose of this lifestyle change was to work less, play more, see more and enjoy our life together. No more three hour commutes (our current commute is 3 minutes by truck, 15 minutes by foot). No more overtime. No more working sixty hour work weeks for a forty hour salary. We are not saying that everyone needs to make this kind of change to attempt to achieve these results. It’s just the path that we chose. We are both committed to this one year journey. Let’s see what happens.

We worked hard the week Memorial Day weekend was coming up. Karin and I were asked to get the adult and kid’s pool ready for opening day. It rained that day. So we showed up, put on our ponchos and went out and worked in the rain. It was a wonderful day! It was a nice change from being in the store. Then came Friday, the big check-in day. Karin was at area 3 and I was at the area 2 gate. Our job was to check passes. We met so many people from all over. It was hot when we began at 2:30 in the afternoon. Lightening began to present itself around 7pm, so we called it a night. As we went back to the area that we live in, it was quite a sight to see! We were the first ones to camp in area 1 almost three weeks ago. As we drove into the area, it had come alive. The area was full of life. It was like someone added water and trailers sprouted up from beneath the dirt. Kids were playing at the playground and riding their bikes. The adults were lighting campfires and cooking up some grub. Everyone waved as we passed by them. We parked and took a walk throughout our new community. People were laughing and smiling. They were so happy to be here. Many license plates were from West Virginia. We saw others too….Virginia, North Carolina, Michigan, Ontario and many others. They were happy to be here…..to do for three days what we plan to do for the next 10 months. We had to step back and remember why we did this. Will we do this again next year? Only time will tell.

Karin's Last Day

(Craig)
Yes, today is Karin's last day at work! So, she slept in and called work to let them know that she'd be late. How funny!
Karin has been with Charles Schwab for many years. But the three hours of daily commute has been a drain on her. When we initially began to look at workamping, I could see in her eyes that she was thinking that this may be her "out". Yes, she may be the "Prom Queen from Frugal, Minnesota", but hey, being frugal isn't a bad word. Some people associate the word "frugal" with "cheap". I may have been one of those people at one time. But now I associate "frugal" with "smart".
So as I go back to work this evening, Karin's fellow employees will be throwing her a party to say goodbye. Karin has one of those never-ending smiles :) I'm sure that she will be missed.
Me? My last day at work is Monday. No party for me....I've only been there for maybe 2 months. That's ok......my boss must like me. He gave me a neon Bud Lite Lime sign the other day. What will I do with that?
Other news. Furniture guy is coming to look at and price our furniture on Friday. We'll see how that goes. I now have transferred all relevant files, pictures, etc. from this desktop computer to our new laptop. Karin is also going to keep her Apple. So this desktop will be on sale as soon as I clean it up.
My son Josh is coming up for the weekend. He has a four day pass. That means that his deployment to Iraq is very near. No specific dates yet. We both appreciate your emails and comments that thank him for his service and wish him well.
We plan to be in Dallas, Texas on Thursday, April 1st. That is set in stone. We want to be ready to leave by the 21st of March. Our actual journey is looking at starting on the 28th/29th. On the way to Dallas, we will have a couple of stops. We have three legs on this trip. Denver to Dallas, Dallas to Minnesota and Minnesota to West Virginia. Many stops in-between. And yes...there are going to be more pics popping up very soon!
We chose and signed up for our roadside assistance plan this week. We decided on CoachNet. We just found many more positive comments about them. We also joined Passport America. PA is a membership club that offers 50% off at associated campgrounds. And, we have purchased Microsoft Streets and Trips software. We tried several programs, and were happy with this one. It works great to plan out trip..each leg, each stop, and what is there to see between point A and B. We also have a GPS unit to use.
With those of our friends that are local, we are planning to see you before we go! I will let you know as soon as we have a couple of dates setup.